This set of music features artists that take me in different directions that I call way out. Dissonant to a degree, minor keys, time signature changes, woodwinds, percussion, and more. This is cerebral stuff that doesn't require you to think. Just enjoy. Everything can be found in Tidal.

I've been feeling for quite some time an increasing interest in finding music that adds a new texture to my collection, as opposed to buying multiple releases from the same artist. Here I gather a mix of both expected and unpredictable artists, a selection of both local and world music that did precisely this.

Lovely Recordings on AudioStream is the music-and-audio reading I most look forward to each week. Quite a number of contributors have enriched my collection through their excellent recommendations, and I am delighted and obliged to return the favor in this, my second guest column for Michael.

I enjoy reading about music and discovering new music. Lovely Recordings is a great place to share and discover this passion. I hope to make you discover something new with this list and that you can feel the same thing I did when I discovered these recordings for the very first time!

It's easy for classical music listeners like me to fall into a rut and listen to the same familiar pieces in multiple different performances. While it's true that there is always something new to find in the old chestnuts like Beethoven's Ninth, why not stretch your ears? So here are three recordings of music that I found exciting and fascinating, plus one fine recording of familiar Chopin played by an artist new to me.

This list of favorites has quite a few favorite female vocalists. It also contains several live albums. There is something special about live albums, where attention is paid to the quality of the recording. I tried to include less known albums of well known artists. I hope you find something new and fun in this list.

As often happens when friends come to dinner, we ended the evening, glass in hand, listening to a couple of their favourite tracks, followed by a couple of mine. "So," she said, settling into the listening seat for her turn, "I guess this is the sweet spot in your happy place?"

"Exactly!" said my wife. "Exactly!"

She’s right. I have loved music—playing and listening—for as long as I remember. I’m not one of those stereophiles that buys new equipment more often than new music, but it has to be said that I have only once in my adult life owned a car that was worth more than my stereo. When it comes to transporting me to out of reach places, the stereo wins hands down.

David Hancock was the legendary engineer responsible for the famous 1967 Donald Johanos/Dallas Symphony Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances LP, as well as Arturo Delmoni & Meg Bachman Vas’ Songs My Mother Taught Me. What many audiophiles don’t know is that David also was a Juilliard-trained classical pianist.

It’s 1996, well before iPods, smartphones and easy Internet access. My employer is sending me from New York City to Sydney, Australia for a 1-year work assignment. My wife and two little kids are coming too. We can bring whatever fits into allowable checked luggage and carry-ons, plus a small “barrel” of other personal items (mostly toys & clothes) that will follow by cargo ship a few months later. We’ll be living in a very small apartment, so most of our possessions will be staying behind (or being sold at garage sale, in the case of my vinyl collection) including everything from our pets to our musical instruments, the hi-fi system and most of my recorded music library. We have two months to get organized. I designate a small cardboard box for CDs to bring along. The ones I choose to fit in that box will have to do me for a year, and I’ll be playing them on a boom-box to be purchased once we arrive. Not the happiest thought for an audiophile, but to be honest there are more pressing things to think about.